Georgia Dems Grow Increasingly Divided After Weekend Meltdown, Hurting Gubernatorial Chances

Georgia Democrats are still reeling from this weekend’s meltdown at the Netroots Nation convention in Atlanta, where supporters of Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams booed and shouted down her primary opponent, Stacey Evans, as she was giving her remarks at the event, leading to scuffles breaking out in the audience. The debacle highlighted just how seriously divided Georgia Democrats are between their party’s two leading candidates, earning repeated comparisons to the fierce rivalry between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders during last year’s presidential election. Columnist Bill Torpy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes today that the meltdown proves that “cracks in the Democratic foundation are already showing” with over a year to go until Georgia’s gubernatorial election, and that the Democratic Party in Georgia “seems ready to relegate itself to permanent bridesmaid status.”

Torpy opines in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“The event was just the latest example of why the Democratic Party seems ready to relegate itself to permanent bridesmaid status, not only here in Georgia but from sea to shining sea…

Lisa Coston, who told me she’s a progressive Dem from Lawrenceville, responded to Abrams’ post, saying: ‘What the protesters did was to disrupt Rep. Evans’ speech, for no apparent reason but to try and shut her up. There is no need for that, nor an excuse for that behavior.’

‘This is the explicit problem with the Democratic Party in general, both at the state and national level. Infighting based on race, religion, whatever else. It prevents progressives from being united, and thus we lose and lose and lose.’

The governor’s election is next year but cracks in the Democratic foundation are already showing. It’s like the Bernie voters taking their toys and going home after Hillary Clinton won the primary…

The Dems have a problem. They say they want a big tent, but each member walking under that covering seems not to care much about the opinions of fellow travelers. It’s about identity politics, not what combines them as voters.”